La ville comme partition ouverte

A “partition” (score) is a special representational form. It is linked to instructions for action and looks forward rather than backward: to the planning of a forthcoming event. The “open score” goes one step further: it articulates the process of producing new realities and their indeterminacy. In his latest publication, Christopher Dell sketches an “open-ended city score.” The term does not refer to a representation of urban sound texture, nor is the city interpreted in an aestheticizing or musicprogramming sense. Instead, urban processes are rendered visible in a new form, by deploying a musical mode of spatial conception as a filter and perspective. For temporality and the dimension of action are vital components in unveiling the visual structures of phenomena in urban practice.

Christopher Dell

Christopher Dell, born in 1965 is a theorist, musician, composer, and curator. He is currently Professor of Urban Design Theory at HafenCity University, Hamburg, and heads the Institute for Improvisation Technology, Berlin.